EDUCATION AND POVERTY LEVEL: A GENDER ANALYSIS OF KOHIMA AND LONGLENG DISTRICTS OF NAGALAND, INDIA

: This paper investigates the female poverty and education level among the households in the rural areas of Kohima and Longleng districts using Head Count Ratio. It is found that there exists high female poverty ratio in both the districts due to lack of basic education. Education is negatively linked with the poverty level and higher levels of education will be more effective in poverty reduction. The results found that higher educational achievement in Jakhama, Tsiese Bawe, Yachem and Bura Namsang shows lower female poverty level. The paper then attempts to present the impact of education on employment, poverty and income using Linear-regression model. The policies suggest that improvement in expertise and skill enhancement, which can ameliorate the female poverty in the districts.


Introduction
Poverty is collectively constructed, and can take many dissimilar forms and calculated using different quantitative methods (Williamson and Hyer, 1975). In an attempt to provide quantitative measurement the earlier research on absolute poverty in the 20 th century can be traced back to Charles Booth, and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree, both constructed total measures of income to define a "poverty line," below which households were likely to be in want of basic needs such as food, clothing, medicine, shelter etc (Booth, 1889;Rowntree, 1901;Plotnick and Skidmore, 1975;Coates and Silbum, 1970;Baran and Sweezy, 1966). Townsend rejected the classical definition of absolute poverty and adopted a relative measurement of poverty (Townsend, 1979).
Absolute poverty referred to a minimum, adequate living condition, based on dietetic requirements and other necessary goods (Bardhan, 1970;Minhas, 1970). The United Nation has signed on to the goal of halving absolute poverty by the year 2015 as the first of eight Millennium Development Goals but remains unsolved (World Bank, 2000).On the other hand relative poverty compares individual or household income with respect to others in the same society (Mowafi and Khawaja, 1979). The concept of relative measurement poverty is mostly applied to developed countries but is also largely replacing the traditional concept of absolute poverty in less developed and developing (Mack and Lansley 1985;Galbraith, 1958).
The fifth five year plan focuses on the anti-poverty policies as the core objective of the government. During the last 70 years since independence, India has achieved many astonishing social and economic achievements in different fields like education, raising standard of living control over the population growth, reducing income inequality, employment and increasing healthcare facilities (Neogi, 2010). Accordingly, government has implemented various numbers of plans, projects, policies and programs for the improvement of basic living standard of the poor household. The aim of the paper is to investigate the female education and poverty level in both the districts.

Theoretical Framework and Literature Review
Poverty and women problems a noteworthy place in the planning era, each five year plan has studied the problems associated with poverty and women, also expected alternative approaches to poverty alleviation and women's development and suggested specific programmes and cause of action (Argiropoulos, and Rajagopal, 2003). Education involves the ability to accept, generate and widen knowledge. As literacy rates improved, women began to express their view of the world (Tilak, 2005). The increasing burden of poverty on women, unequal access to education and training, lack of health care facilities, violence against women, economic inequalities; inequality in power and decision making; insufficient mechanisms to promote the advancement of women (World Bank,1991). There are many ways to study the nature of rural development, but in the present paper an attempt is made to deal with the issues in terms of basic facilities for education and female poverty in the districts. To begin with, the rural situation in Nagaland is in no way satisfactory with respect to the spread of modern education system. The percentage of literacy of women, compared to other parts of India is quite low. This paper is based on the various reviews of existing literature on socio-economic and cultural life of the women in Kohima and Longleng districts. Although after statehood in 1 December1963, substantial progress has been achieved in other districts, the gains in education of the rural women in many parts Eastern Nagaland have been noticed inadequate. The main objective of the paper is to investigate female poverty and education in rural areas of Kohima and Longleng districts.
Poverty is regarded as a hindrance within the course of social, political, economic and educational. At the present scenario, in every country, education is considered as important tool for eradication poverty. Gunnar Myrdal examined on direct and indirect role of education on capacity building of a country and found that education encompasses better health, nutrition and improves socio-economic condition. It is one of the most important social infrastructure variables which is having direct link with the level of income, human capital and standard of living (Myrdal, 1968).
Education assists in the development of knowledge and skill among the individual especially in rural sector of the country. The individual, who are educated and possess adequate knowledge and skill will be able to enhance their wages and hence lead to elimination of poverty, therefore, higher level education, lower the poverty level. The direct impact of education and poverty is through increase in wage (Jamir and Ezung, 2017). There is also a wide range of potentials for educational initiative with a gender and focus, outside of the schooling system. Adult literacy programmes may be acknowledged in reaching women, who have not obtained the opportunity to attend schools at an earlier stage. This kind of education can be provided in a variety of forms, not only by the arrangement of literacy classes, but incorporated with other programmes such as income, credit, health and skill development courses etc. (Quinn, 2012).
Number of studies on rural poverty and education is available for a period to recent time in India this studies. This studies includes; Fan et.al(2000) study the rural poverty in India and conclude that the level of rural poverty has been declining continuously; much of the steady declined in poverty from the mid-1960s to early 1980s has been attributed to public expenditure education, health in rural areas etc. Islam (2014) this article examine the introduction of modern education that has played an important role in improving the status of Phom women in Longleng district. The education through Christianity which made them capable enough to emancipate themselves from the bondages of age-old superstitions, it has found that they are marching head to head with the male counterpart in social, economic and political aspects. Kurian (1989) examine the anti-poverty program during the sixth five year plan (1978-83) which visualized the Integrated Rural Development Program as a total development model for rural areas with the community development block as the unit of planning, where the very poor section of the society would be benefited from primary education, health service, drinking water etc. The main thrust of the programme is to provide the needed asset and the requisite skills for development. Abraham and Kumar (2008) examine the multidimensional poverty of 15 major states over two time periods i.e.1993-94 and 1999-2000 and taking NSSO data and study the indicators like consumption, education, sanitation, access to water, source of energy for cooking and dwelling for both rural and urban areas of India and concludes that in rural areas, all states perform poorly in the sanitation and energy except Kerala and Assam.
Basumatary (2012) the paper highlight the number of school dropout depending upon various factors such as poverty level, distance of school from house, transport facilities, quality of teacher, good environment and many other facilities. The study is based on quantitative analysis approach and it was found that the impact of poverty level and the rural population is statistically significant.
Kewe-u Vupru (2016) conducted a study on impact of Right to Education (RTE) on quality education in Nagaland. The main objectives of the study were to examine the overall academic performance of students in the pre-RTE and Post-RTE period. The finding of the study was that RTE had statistically positive impact on the performance of the students. Both boys and girls showed significant improvement in their performance in the post-RTE period. Kumar et.al (2015) studies the multidimensional poverty deprivation of 104 countriesusing health, education and standards of living. The results show that 51 per cent of South Asia and 28 per cent of Africa are multidimensional poor. India lies on 73 th position from 104 countries with a 53 per cent are multidimensional poor. Among the 28 states Goa, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are in vulnerable stage. Kerala remains in top position, while remaining states remains in the bottom positions. They suggest that multidimensional poverty index is the most important measure of the poverty because of its multi-dimensions and multi indicators which provide the reason behind the causes and effect of poverty and the solution how to prevent poverty. Agarwal (2006) the paper points out that, there is a need for investment both from public and private sources in higher education system in India. The country needs an environment for more domestic as well as foreign competition. This would require a review of the regulatory arrangements and adopting a pragmatic approach. Finally, public policy has to be rooted in the realities of Indian higher education and take into account its many contradictions. Even with all this, the expectations have to be realistic. Mukherjee (2007) the paper highlighted the expenditure on social sector to improve the education system in India. The impact of the move was to extend midday meals to upper primary education. Initiatives in the area of elementary education seek to strengthen, the existing consensus regarding mid-day meals in enrolment and retention of children in school. Rengma and Jha (2014) the article focus on communisation of education in Nagaland started as a unique partnership between the government and the community involving transfer of ownership of public resources and assets control over service delivery, empowerment, decentralization, delegation and capacity building for improving the delivering of public utility system. The study revealed that impact of communisation resulted in more number of enrolment of male as well as female students, increase attendance percent of teachers and students and gain in pass percentage of students, improvement in punctuality, more disciple and participation of students in extra-co-curriculum. Rabbani (2006) this article examines the Indian Education from high stand point of view of the status and trends of Education during the British period and after independence and it was found that democratization of education in the genuine senses was need. He also pointed out that education research on the history of the growth of education shows that most of these studies were conducted on the surface level.
Shiralashetti (2007) analyzed the development and prospects of higher education in India. The study covers various parameters of higher education like student's enrolment, type and number of colleges, faculty position, and government expenditure on higher education and allocation of grants during the tenth five year

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225 plan. It also made clear that there has been a lack of reliability in the increases of budget distribution, grants received from (MHRD) ministry of human resource development and expenditure incurred for higher education in India. This development will help in reducing rural poverty in India.

Historical Background of the Birth of Kohima and Longleng
The state of Nagaland came into existence as the sixteenth states of Indian union on December 1, 1963 (Census of Nagaland, 2011) and Kohima officially becomes the capital of Nagaland and is famous during the Second World War where famous battle of Kohima was fought between the British and Japanese force on 4 April to 22 June 1944 (Keane, 2010). The geographical location of Kohima is between 25°6' and 27°4' latitude. North of Equator and between the longitudinal lines 93°20'E and 95°15'E, and has an average elevation of 4137 feet (Climate of Nagaland 2014).
Kohima is primarily agrarian economy. People are dependent on agriculture for their living and also agriculture has a large share to the economy. As per 2011, Kohima had a population of 99,039 of which males and females were 51,626 and 47,413 respectively. Kohima has an average literacy rate of 90.76 per cent higher than national average of 79.55 per cent (Census of Kohima, 2011).

Study Areas and Data Collection
The analysis of education (literacy) and female poverty in Kohima and Longleng districts is significantly based on primary source of data. The sample was collected using systematic random sampling method. The sampled villages of Kohima district are Jakhama, Kijumetouma, Mezoma and Tsiese Bawe. For Longleng district the sampled villages are Bura Namsang. Nian, Sakshi and Yachem. Household survey was conducted between April and March, 2017-18, data on daily expenditure on food and non-food items and earning capacity of the households were collected. The rural household survey was conducted and information was recorded from sampled 300 households.
The next step in poverty analysis is the identification of rural poverty line that distinguishes the poor from non-poor. The National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), Government of India, set the poverty line for both rural and urban areas based on the monthly per-capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) incurred by a household on domestic consumption (Planning Commission, 2014). The NSSO estimated a poverty line of Rs 972 for rural areas during 2011-12 and Rs 1229.83 for Nagaland during the same period. The sample survey report estimates of monthly per-capita consumption expenditure came out to be Rs 1832.44 for rural area during 2017-18. In comparison to Nagaland MPCE at 2011-2012 prices, the field survey on MPCE at 2017-18 prices is higher mainly due to the price inflation of essential food and non-food items and also increase in income of the people due to various government sponsored programs. The report of the expert group maintains that the household consumer expenditure is more reliable than income and hence more suitable for measuring poverty. Thus, MPCE was used as a proxy for the actual income while determining poverty (Ezung, 2011).
In this study, different formulations have been employed for empirical analyses namely descriptive analysis, correlation and Linear-regression model. In order to estimate the incidence of poverty head count ratio (HCR) was used. Moreover, Linearregression model for bi-variate analysis was used in order to examine the determinant of education and female poverty level in both the districts.

Results
Rural poverty is multidimensional concept and involves several issues associated to employment, income, health, nutrition, water supply, sanitation, electricity, education, housing, assets and all socio-economic and demographic parameters. A complete view of these dimensions is necessary to get a good understanding of the determinants of rural poverty in Kohima and Longleng districts. Table 1 shows the ranking of village-wise trends of average per capita consumption expenditure. During the period 2017-18, it was found that monthly average per-capita consumption expenditure show low in Kijumetouma village with Rs 1850 per month and was considered as one of the poorest village in the Northern region of Kohima district. The notable exceptions are Mezoma and Tsiese Bawe villages with moderate average per-capita consumption expenditure. It is interesting to note that Jakhama has the highest average per capita consumption expenditure with Rs 2369.63 per month and was considered one of the most develop village in Southern region of Kohima (Jamir and Ezung 2017). Longleng district with the least population show very low average monthly percapita consumption expenditure. Table 2 presents the ranking of villages by average per-capita consumption expenditure. The results show that Sakshi, Nian and Bura Namsang village has extremely low monthly average per-capita consumption expenditure, whereas Yachem village has the highest average per-capita consumption expenditure in Longleng.  Table 3 highlight the ranking of female head-count ratio (poverty level) for both the districts and found that Kohima has lower head-count ratio than Longleng. The results show that Longleng has the maximum incidence, depth and severity of female poverty than Kohima. Similarly, the percentage of monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPEC) shows that, the village where MPEC is very low, the female headcount ratio (poverty) is the highest (Dubey, 2009;Chattopadhyay and Ghosal, 2004). It was found that the poor performance of various economic and social indicators like income and employment generation plans, women self-employment scheme, agrobased activities, skill development programs for women and women education is quite ineffective especially in rural areas, as a result female poverty is quite alarming in Longleng (Uma and Juan 2007;Bhalla, 2003).
Longleng is primarily an agrarian economy. People are dependent on agriculture for their living and also agriculture has a large share to the economy. The rural areas of Longleng face acute problems of physical infrastructure facilities such as road, marketing centre, storage facilities, warehousing, electricity etc. which extensively hamper the marketing of agriculture products which in turn reduces the income of the people and thus, raises the poverty level (female poverty) and widens the income inequality in the rural region (Laxminarayan, 1970;Nakhro, 2010;Ezung and Jamir, 2016;Deepika, 2003). These, in turn have an impact on the rural economic growth, daily wage and employment of the poor household, thereby affecting their real income or consumption level. Another noteworthy feature of high female poverty level (refer table 3) in the rural sector of Longleng is due to poor human-resources development in the areas of education, health and nutrition, sanitation and skill enhancement (Dadibhavi, 1991).
It has been found that higher average monthly per-capita consumption expenditure and lower female poverty level (refer table 3) in the rural areas of Kohima was mainly due to rapid development of infrastructure facilities such as road, water supply, electricity, education, medical facilities etc resulting in increased agricultural productivity, non-farm employment, wages and employment opportunities of the household (Fan and Hazzell 2000;Majumdar, 2005). In both the districts it was found that labour is basically the only source of income for the poor household. Dreze and Sen (2002) show the influential role of education in enabling people to make use of economic opportunities created by the growth process.

Estimation of Female Poverty using Head Count Ratio (HCR)
This measure give the proportion of the total population deemed to be poor (i.e., those below poverty line). Table 3 shows the proportion of female poverty for Kohima and Longleng. The village-wise HCR estimate based on MPCE shows that Kijumetouma has the highest number of female poor living below poverty line with 31.25 per cent, while Jakhama village exhibits the lowest percentage with 11.86 per cent in rural areas of Kohima district. For Longleng district estimated head count ratio shows that Sakshi has the highest number of female poverty level with 75.90 per cent, while Bura Namsang show the lowest percentage with 19.23 per cent.

Estimation of Education (Female Literacy) for Kohima and Longleng
Education acts as the catalyst for human resource development which encompasses better health, nutrition and improves socio-economic opportunities. Education is one of the most important social indicators which are having direct link with the level of income, employment, productive manpower (i.e., human capital) and standard of living (Basu 1989;Emmerij, 1972). Table 4 shows that the literacy rate of Tsiese Bawe and Jakahama is comperatively better than Mezoma and Kijumetouma. Table 5 shows Yachem and Bura Namsang has the highest literacy rate whereas Sakshi and Nian village has the lowest literacy rate in Longleng district.

Impact of Education and Female Poverty in Rural Areas of Kohima and Longleng
Education is an important determinant of employment, income and specifying the standard of living for the people (poverty level). This study finds out the effect of education on female poverty. In order to find out this impact the study used Linearregression model with the probability of being poor with regard to education. The result shows that the region (rural areas) with lower education level (literacy rate) experience higher female poverty rate. Female segment of our society is cooperatively much deprived as compared to male counterpart. On the other side, those poor household severely lack housing, health, drinking water, electricity, sanitation etc all are in deplorable condition. All these things affect the productivity of poor household and they cannot come out of their vicious poverty circle (Awan, et.al 2011). Note: * and ** indicates significant level at 1 per cent and 5 per cent. "Education" independent variable; "Poverty" dependent variable show that all the variables have correct signs. The Linear-regression model results confirm the indication of bi-variate analysis that education (literacy rate) affects rural female poverty. On the contrary education (literacy rate) and female poverty for Jakhama, Tsiese Bawe, Bura Namsang, Nian, and Yachem have 't' value more than 1 (one) and is statistically significant at 1 percent level (p<0.001) which means that the variables are negatively correlated and the probability of household in poverty(female poverty) decline with the increase of education. On the other Kijumetouma village of Kohima have 't' value less than 1 (one) and is not statistically significant which indicates that education has significantly little or no impact in reducing poverty level (female poverty).The result found that both are positively correlated. The coefficients of determination i.e., R 2 for Jakhama (0.78), Tsiese Bawe (0.93), Bura Namsang (0.83), Nian (0.88) and Yachem (0.93) is quite high compare to other villages. The education-poverty linkage is clear from R-Square that higher education (literacy rate)of female in the household, the potentiality of exploiting resources to generate employment and averting poverty is also quite high in rural sector of both the districts.

Discussion and Conclusion
Despite the remarkable development achieved in Kohima and Longleng, the benefits did not fall on everyone equally. Considerable progress have been made through the five years plan with social and economic objective such as improving education, health, employment generation, standards of living, gender equality and environment sustainability, yet there exist higher level of poverty (female poverty) in rural areas of Kohima and Longleng districts. Findings qualify the general understanding of female poverty and education levels in rural areas of Kohima and Longleng and it was found that the heads count ratio (HCR) was quite high in all the sample villages except Jakhama and Bura Namsang. It was found that the poor household, on the other hand, are less likely to overcome the obstacle and are confined to low income sectors which make insignificant contribution to welfare.
The results show that there is a positive correlation between female poverty and education level (female literacy) only in some rural areas of Kohima and Longleng. It was also found that rural areas in both the districts having low female literacy rate shows higher level of female poverty. The result shows the literacy rate in rural areas of Longleng was comparatively lower than rural areas of Kohima. The reason was because of poor economic condition of the families, to look after the household activities, early marriage, no girl schools, lack of supervision and personal guidance for girls/women education, lack of adequate incentives for women education, employed girl's child etc. The paper suggests that educational institutionsin the districts should be allowed to provide skill development courses, focus on development of rural education, free basic computer skills classes, teacher training, subsidies and grants for professional courses, educate parents, health education, smart classes, e-libraries, making sports compulsory etc. so, it improve the education system in rural areas.
This paper also suggests appropriate and effective anti-poverty policy interventions, and implement income and employment generation programs, old age pension scheme and infrastructural development projects such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana, Atal Pension Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Sampoorna Grameen Rogzar Yojana, Swarna Jayanati Gram Swaragzar Yojana, Integrated Rural Development Programme (Fisher and Ali 2019;Subbarao and Kakwani 1992) and also promote agro-based activities like animal husbandry, bee keeping, poultry, etc. so that there will be increase in the level of income and help in reducing income disparities (Yabiku and Schlabach 2009;Jamir and Ezung 2017). It is also, suggested that proper physical and social overhead capital i.e., infrastructure, need to be developed and priority be given to the rural areas in both the districts. This development of infrastructure will help in the marketing of agriculture products which in turn will increase the income of the household and help in eradicating the female poverty.
It has been observed that there are no significant trends indicating that extreme poverty of women of this region is being reduced. The central and the state governments need to examine the depth of women's poverty in the districts which has serious gender discriminations. To eradicate this extreme poverty, there is a need for holistic schemes with a more specific focus and time bound action (Dayal, 1989). A policy of planned measure may help to advance the condition of the women in their day to day life. Conditions of the extreme poverty of the women as manifested in the case of women in the region cannot be addressed without deliberate targeted action (Bastos, et. al 2009).